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3.47 AVERAGE
3.47 AVERAGE
This story wasn’t up my alley. I have read Sophie Gonzalez other books and was excited to read this one. The premise sounded really interesting. However, when I was reading it, it didn’t really hit for me. I didn’t realize how much of this was a fanfiction based story, but also wasn’t into how it made it seem like people who wrote fanfiction didn’t want to face reality. Which comes off weird to me. I also didn’t like Mack and Ivy‘s friendship at all. The moments they had was fighting with each other which always seemed really petty. To me it made them really unlikable. This book came across to young for me. Which I think is the big reason this didn’t land the right way for me. If I was a lot younger I probably would have enjoyed it more. Unfortunately this one just isn’t and wasn’t for me.
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I had high hopes for this book, but somewhere around the middle, it started to be boring.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is the gay agenda. We made it. I genuinely cannot believe we have progressed as a society to the point where kids don’t feel the urge or need to hide that they read fanfic, so much so that the protagonist of a YA novel is unapologetically a creator and consumer of fanfiction. BACK IN MY DAY —
No, but seriously. What a hilarious, fun book to introduce all the plebs to the dangers of fanfic. While reading it I imagined this novel to functionally be the written equivalent of a Disney Channel Original Movie, or as we the people call it, a DCOM. It’s the kind of easy, breezy, what-if scenario with little to no explanation offered that a DCOM would do — sort of like 16 Wishes meets How to Build a Better Boy. Don’t go into this expecting any world building or reasoning, just turn off your brain and enjoy the ride. I didn’t bother trying to figure out the logic of how a fictional character appeared from thin air, and that’s really the only way to read the book.
Ivy, our POV character, is a mess, honestly. Her insecurity is off the charts crazy, which in part resulted in the dissolution of her friendship with who she thought was her ride-or-die, Mack. You kind of get why she is the way she is, though — Gonzales gives us a few good scenes with her parents, whose pictures are probably in the dictionary next to the word “helicopter.” Truly, her mother was infuriating; under no circumstances do you raise a healthy, well adjusted child when you tell them constantly they’ll mess up if left to their own devices. And Ivy is, in the end, a teenager. An immature teenager, to be sure, but she still feels and acts like a teenager, so I think Gonzales nailed her perfectly. The only thing that eventually became annoying was how obsessed she was with her favorite TV show, H-MAD (Hot, Magical, & Deadly). It doesn’t make her unrealistic — plenty of teenagers make their fandoms their entire personality. But it’s as irritating in fiction as it is in reality, and it grated after a while.
Henry, Ivy’s current best friend, was a hoot. I liked him a lot, and I loved Mack as well. Weirdly, I wish I’d seen more of them, even though they were in a large portion of the book. Weston, a character in H-MAD who manifested from Ivy’s fanfics, was unfortunately pretty bland and ultimately fairly boring. Likely because he was written by an inexperienced teenage girl, but he only became interesting at the end, and only for a chapter or two. That’s a shame, really, because we spend a whole lot of time with him, and the time we don’t spend with him is often about him. I get that it’s the premise of the book, I just wish I hadn’t had to read about it quite so much. Mack and Henry, and their respective relationships with Ivy, were much more interesting because they were genuinely authentic. I didn’t understand why Ivy wanted Weston to stick around, either — I think the book could’ve been elevated if she too had wanted him gone by, like, the halfway point of the book.
We switched every chapter from past to present, and while initially I think this was a good idea, eventually it messed with my perception of Ivy. I enjoy it, obviously, when characters grow and change, and while rotating timelines make it much easier to see that change, it also yo-yos the reader back and forth between progression and regression. Having two timelines also builds anticipation for how Ivy and Mack’s friendship ended, but when we finally got to that point, it was incredibly anticlimactic. I know that’s how a lot of friendships end, but the animosity from the beginning did not match the dissolution of that relationship. I wanted more sparks, more explosion. Something concrete that they needed to strive to get over, not a singular event that could’ve been solved in one single conversation.
But they were cute though. Very cute. Super cute. Loved them together. Wish so badly we could’ve seen far more of them together, honestly. Like, if they’d gotten together by the middle of the book, so Ivy realizes she doesn’t want Weston around anymore but he refuses to leave, and then they work together with Henry to get rid of him — yeah, I’d have ate that specific book up and left zero crumbs. It would’ve been a read with a little more stakes, too.
Not that what I got wasn’t enough. It was, I just think there was so much potential for so much more. But alas, you cannot argue with the DCOM formula. And you know what? I did thoroughly enjoy the ride.
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was a really cute and easy read! I would say it hits more of a younger YA audience but that does not change the fact that it's a good story! I enjoyed the past scenes and all the scenes with Mack and Ivy, while their issues felt a bit juvenile - this is bang on for how a lot of younger teenagers act. The scenes with Weston were a little hit or miss for me, some were really good and others did end up feeling a little silly. My favourite thing was probably seeing how both Ivy and Mack grew from their past mistakes, we love some nice character development.
It's also clear Sophie has a great understanding of the world of fanfic and is part of that community - which helps a lot as it means there are none of those vibes where an author just tries to co-opt something that's hip with the kids but doesn't fully understand it. Sophie is undoubtedly one of us!!!
Thank you to Wednesday Books and Sophie for a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.
It's also clear Sophie has a great understanding of the world of fanfic and is part of that community - which helps a lot as it means there are none of those vibes where an author just tries to co-opt something that's hip with the kids but doesn't fully understand it. Sophie is undoubtedly one of us!!!
Thank you to Wednesday Books and Sophie for a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.
It’s crazy that Weston is there, how his clothes change, how he was able to get all the stuff to take care of her in just a few seconds, and just in general I can’t suspend my belief enough to buy this story. Maybe if all of that didn’t happen (the clothes, remedies, distress message) I would go along with it. Like a Freaky Friday type of magic from the storm and her fanfic created a whole ass person out of thin air. But then to have him glitching while part of this reality? And I could even buy him glitching if other people couldn’t see or hear him. But they can, so he’s here and honestly it just doesn’t add up for me. And if I’m being honest, I feel the same way about the show as Mack does. Just putting up with it cuz Ivy likes it. I stuck around as long as I did because I liked Ivy. She’s fun. Her voice is strong and I wanted to see more about her and her mom. At first, I wanted to know what happened with Mack but there’s been a couple of teases so far and I’m less interested in the reason. Mostly I think that this book is not for me and that’s because I’m not the target audience. I love YA but sometimes YA Contemporary and YA Romance are a miss for me.
I'm really sad about DNFing this book because until I tried it I was of the opinion that Sophie Gonzalez couldn't write a bad book, and while this book wasn't truly bad, it was just not especially enjoyable. The main character never really made me excited to read about her, and the story wasn't interesting enough to make up for that. I might pick up this book again one day, but since I was already in a reading slump, my lack of enthusiasm about reading this book made it my first choice to drop.